Leighton Meester didn't have a childhood, okay?

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Leighton Meester was always a grown-up

Gossip Girl troublemaker Leighton Meester had quite the tough childhood. However, the actress tells Glamour that it helped her with her acting career.

Leighton Meester might live a life of luxury and glamour on Manhattan's Upper East Side now, but her humble beginnings started in prison, namely a prison hospital. TheGossip Girl actress' mother, Constance, was incarcerated for drug trafficking while pregnant with the future star. She was eventually moved with her mom to a Florida halfway house.

If that wasn't bad enough, her dad was also in prison for drugs.

So, no one really should have expected anything from the young brunette, but she had the ambition to prove everyone wrong. "You can take what is handed to you and use it as an excuse to mess up. But I've always handled what was given to me by life. I consider myself lucky. I was never lied to. And I was loved," she told Marie Claire in the April 2012 issue.

"My family has a crazy history," she said. "Probably the craziest I've heard of."

That's not to say the actress wasn't happy, though. "I look back now and I see it in a nice light," she added. "It wasn't uncomplicated. But I played outside. I went to the beach. There were happy, fun times."

Meester didn't stay in Florida for long — a model scout scooped her up and she moved with her mom to the West Village where she starred in commercials. The rest, of course, is history. So, what's it like to have a rags-to-riches story? Meester said there's only one bad part: She doesn't date a lot.

"I never had a boyfriend until I was 18. It's nice, I guess — when you like them," she revealed. "But it isn't the most important thing. I'm not sure I ever want to get married. The only time a relationship is good is when you really love them. I don't want to hang out with some guy I just like."